Oregon road-repair bill heads for approval

| Wednesday, July 02, 2003

A
multibillion-dollar plan to fix Oregon’s roads and bridges is headed
for a final legislative vote in the state Senate, the Statesman
Journal reported.

The
Senate Revenue Committee voted 5-0 June 30 to send HB2041 before
the full Senate later this week. If approved by 60 percent of the
Senate, the transportation financing plan, which previously passed
the House, would go before the governor for approval.

The
finance package would raise $2.5 billion over 10 years, mostly from
bonds repaid from higher vehicle registration and title fees, higher
permit and license fees on drivers and higher weight-mile taxes
on truckers, Oregon House Speaker Karen Minnis said in a recent
statement.

About
$1.6 billion would go toward repairing or replacing 480 bridges
on the state’s major highways. The rest of the money would go to
cities, counties and the state for road projects.

Commercial
truck registration fees would increase about 53 percent, and their
weight-mile taxes would climb almost 10 percent starting Jan. 1.
Car title fees would increase from $30 to $55. Registration fees
would go from $30 to $54 every two years.

Other
features include a provision that would give truckers as much as
$3 million a year in tax credits for buying cleaner engines. The
credits would be funded from a transportation reinvestment pot filled
by personal income taxes from jobs created by bridge work.